The reasons they commonly add why in this sense Christ is called the " Son of God" are the same which they give why he is called " God." " He is the only-begotten Son of God," say the authors of the Compendium of the religion before mentioned, " because God sanctified him, and sent him into the world, and because of his ex- altation at the right hand of God, whereby he was made our Lord and God."'
If the reader desire to hear them speak in their own words, let him consult Smalcius, De Vera Divinit. Jes. Christ, cap. vii., etc. ; Socin. Disput. cum Erasmo Johan. Rationum quatuor antecedent. Refut. Disput. de Christi Natura, pp. 14, 15 ; Adversus Weikum, pp. 224, 225, et passim ; Volkel. De Vera Relig. lib. v. cap. x.-xii. ;
' " Si quse sit vocabuli 'adoptivus' significatio ex mente sacrarum literarmn conside- retur, nos non inficiari Christum suo niodo esse adoptivum Dei Filium ; quia enim adoptivi iilii ea est conditio et proprietas, ut talis non sit natus qualis factus est post adoptionem. Certe quia Clu'istus talis natura, vel in ipsa conceptioue et nativitate non fuit, qualis postea fuit tetate accedente, sine injuria adoptivus Dei Filius eo uiodo dici potest." — Smalc. ad Smiglec. cap. xx. p. 175.
* " Filium Dei unigenitum esse docent, turn propter sanctificationem, ac missioncm in mundum, turn exaltationem ad Dei dextram, adeo ut factum Dominum et Deum nos- trum afiBrmant." — Compend. Eelig. cap. i. p. 2.
OF THE PERSON OF JESUS CHRIST. 183
Jonas Schlicht. ad Meisner., pp. 192, 198, etc.; especially the same person fully and distinctly opening and declaring the minds of his companions, and the several accounts on which they afifirm Christ to be, and to have been called, the " Son of God," in his Comment on the Epistle to the Hebrews, pp. 16-20, as also his Notes upon Vech- nerus' Sermon on John i. p. 14, etc, ; Anonym. Respon. ad Centum Argumenta Cichorii Jesuitse, pp. 8-10; Confessio Fidei Christianas, edita nomine Ecclesiarum in Polonia, pp. 24, 25.
Their good friend Episcopius hath ordered all their causes of Christ's filiation under four heads : —
1. The first way (saith he) whereby Christ is in the Scripture xar' l^o^riv, called the " Son of God," is in that as man lie was conceived of the Holy Ghost, and born of a virgin. And I doubt not (saith he) but that God is on this ground called eminently the "Father of our Lord Jesus Christ."
2. Jesus Christ by reason of that duty or office which was imposed on him by his Father, that he should be the king of Israel promised by the prophets, is called the « Son of God."
3. Because he was raised up by the Father to an immortal life, and, as it wei'e, born again from the womb of the earth without the help of any mother.
4. Because being so raised from death, he is made complete heir of his Father's house, and lord of all his heavenly goods, saints, and angels. ^
The like he had written before, in his Apology for the Remon- strants, cap. ii. sect, 2.
Thus he, evidently and plainly from the persons before named. But yet, after all this, he asks another question, — " Whether, all this being granted, there do not yet moreover remain a more eminent and pecuhar reason why Christ is called the 'Son of God'?" He answers himself: " There is, — namely, his eternal generation of the Father, his being God of God from all eternity ;" which he pursues with sundry arguments, and yet in the close disputes that the acknowledgment of this truth is not fundamental, or the denial of it exclusive of sal- vation!^ So this great reconciler of the Arminian and Socinian re- ligions, whose composition and unity into an opposition to them whom he calls Calvinists is the great design of his Theological Insti- tutions; and such at this day is the aim of Curcellseus and some others. By the way, I shall desire (before I answer what he offers
' " Primus modus est, quia quatenus homo ex Spiritu Dei Sancto conceptus est, et ex virgine natus est. Nee dubium mihi est, quin ob hunc modum, Deus etiam xar i^'X^* Tocetur Pater Domini nostri Jesu Christi. Secundus modus est, quia Jesus Christus ratione munevis illius, quod a Patre special! mandate impositum ei fuit, ut rex Isi'aelis esset, promissus ille per prophetas, et prsevisus ante secula Filius Dei vocatur. Tertius modus est, quia a Patre ex mortuis in vitam immortalem suscita- tus, et veluti ex iitero terrsB, nulla mediante matre, denuo genitus est. Quartus modus est, quia Jesus Christus ex morte suscitatus, haeres ex asse constitutus est in domo Patris sui, ac proinde bonorum omnium coelestium, et Patris sui ministrorum omni- um sive angelorum dominus." — Episcop. Instit. Thcolog. lib. iv. cap. xxxiii. sect. 2, p. 195.
' Instit. Theol. lib. iv. cap. xxxiii. sect 2, p. 335.
184 VINDICI^ EVANGELIC^.
to confirm his assignation of this fourfold manner of fihation to Jesus Christ) to aslc this learned gentleman (or those of his mind who do survive him) this one question, Seeing that Jesus Christ was from eternity the Son of God, and is called so after his incarnation, and was on that account in his whole person the Son of God, by their own confessions, what tittle can he or they find in the Scripture of a manifold filiation of Jesus Christ in respect of God his Father? or whether it be not a diminution of his glory to be called the Son of God upon any lower account, as by a new addition to him who was eternally his only -begotten Son, by virtue of his eternal generation of his own substance ?